Broad Director Lander Joins HMS

MIT Professor and Director of the Broad Institute Eric Lander join the faculty of Harvard Medical School (HMS) this month, in a move that further ensures equal participation between Harvard and MIT at the soon-to-be launched Broad Institute.

“This is of course a 50-50 joint venture between Harvard and MIT,” said Lander, whose new position in the Systems Biology Department at HMS will key him in to issues at the two schools. “Now I am 50-50 in both institutions.”

The Broad Institute, which researches the role genes play in health and disease, was founded to foster interaction between researchers from Harvard and MIT.

“The whole point of Broad is to enable collaboration amongst faculty, particularly on those large collaborative projects that are difficult to do in traditional labs,” Lander said. “Academia has lots of very talented people who think big and dream big, but it’s not always possible to do all that within your own lab.”

Lander is one of Broad’s four core founding members, along with David M. Altshuler, Stuart L. Schreiber and Todd R. Golub—all of whom are Harvard faculty members.

“It is very important that the governance—the ultimate decision making—is equally split,” Altshuler said. “We want to equally represent Harvard and MIT, so that everyone feels truly welcome, but no one’s counting numbers.”

University Provost Steven E. Hyman said that while the original intention was for half of the members to come from MIT and half from Harvard, this might not be the end result.

He said that Broad’s research areas have attracted faculty working at nearby hospitals. These hospitals tend to be Harvard affiliated.

“We are foreseeing that a lot of the interesting collaboration is between genomics and medicine,” Hyman said. “It may be that we underestimated the number of hospital-based faculty who would profit from [the collaborations] and who have training, time and interest.”

While all four core members are Harvard affiliates, Lander said that the number of “core members will rise to twelve.” There are also 58 associate members who hail from both Harvard and MIT.

Further collaboration takes place within the institute itself. This month, faculty from different Broad programs have begun weekly meetings to discuss progress across different projects.

BROAD VISION

Almost one year after the announcement of the $100 million gift from Eli and Edythe L. Broad, which initiated the collaborative research, Broad is still faced with important logistical issues as it prepares for its May launch.

Currently located at 320 Charles St., Broad operates under the Whitehead Institute, a center for genome research. But Broad wants to grow independent from Whitehead.

Though Broad does not yet have a permanent home, Scott J. Turner, director of communications at Broad, said that finding a new location is a goal for the near future.

“We’re growing out of [Whitehead],” said Turner, who was unsure as to whether or not the institute would move into a new building or an existing structure. “We’re hoping this will be done by spring. It’s a very bold venture, the joining of the institutions, so this has to be worked out.”

Lander said that though a definite site has not been announced, Broad will be located in Kendall Square—a central location between Harvard and MIT.

Three sites have been flagged as possible locations, and Lander said he hopes to resolve this issue within the next six to eight weeks.

“By the time we launch, we’ll have a location,” Lander said.

—Staff writer Claire G. Friedman can be reached cfriedm@fas.harvard.edu.